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The Document.documentElement read-only property returns the Element that is the root element of the document (for example, the <html> element for HTML documents).

Syntax

var element = document.documentElement;

Example

var rootElement = document.documentElement;
var firstTier = rootElement.childNodes;

// firstTier is the NodeList of the direct children of the root element
for (var i = 0; i < firstTier.length; i++) {
   // do something with each direct kid of the root element
   // as firstTier[i]
}

Notes

This property is a read-only convenience for getting the root element associated with any document.

HTML documents typically contain a single child node, <html>, perhaps with a DOCTYPE declaration before it. XML documents often contain multiple child nodes: the root element, the DOCTYPE declaration, and processing instructions.

That's why you should use document.documentElement rather than document.firstChild to get the root element.

Specifications

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: teoli,